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SETTLEMENT 



ANn 



EARLY HISTORY 



OF 



ALBANY. 




M0^. 



u 




PLAN OF ALBANY, 1605. 



1. The tort. 

"2. Dutch cliuich 

3. l,mhiT;ui church, 

4. Us liuriiil phice. 
n. Dutch church Jo. 



6 Stailhui.s or City Hall. 

7 Blockhous<-s. 

9. Great «un to cleiir a gully. 
10 StocKaile.<. 
11. City gates, 6 in all. 



THE 



SETTLEMENT 



AND 



EARLY HISTOKY OF ALBANY 



T 



BY 



WILLIAM BARXES. 





ALBANY, N. Y. : 

J MUNSELL, 78 STATE STREET. 

18GJ. 



t 



i 






i 



i 



NOTICE 



This Essay look the prize of the Young Men's Association 
for Mutual Improvement in the City of Albany, in Decem- 
ber, 1850, and was published in a pamphlet. The edition 
having been long since exhausted, and much inquiry made 
for it, the author has contributed this edition to the Holland 
Booth of the Army Relief Bazaar. 

Ai,BANT. January. IHlii. 



HISTORY OF ALBANY, 

1609—1686. 




city in the United 
States is more fruit- 
ful of historic interest 
than Albany. Not so, 
by some one great 
event, which will stand forever as a 
beacon light in the path of Time, illu- 
mining as w^ith a petrified brightness 
the place of its occurrence ; but, by the 
numberless events, and early and inte- 
resting associations, clustering in every 
half century of its existence. 



It is not a spirit at war with the ge- 
nius of republican institutions, which 
inclines ns to muse on the history of 
our own city, and recount witli pride and 
admiration the incidents of its early 
annals, and the scenes of its younger 
days; nor, to my notion, is it repre- 
hensible to look back with the same 
feeling to the noble deeds and exalted 
worth of our ancestors, if we draw from 
the retrospect, not a false estimate of 
superiority in ourselves, but only deeper 
and more powerful incentives to be- 
come worthy of such ancestry. The 
connection of the past with the present, 
of the present with the future, form 
some of the noblest motives to human 



7 

exertion, and some of the most power- 
ful restraints to the commission of 
crime ; and a due consideration of 
their rehition to each other, constitutes 
the distinguishing characteristic of the 
wise and great. An intimate or even 
general knowledge of the early history 
of our own city, disseminated more 
widely among its inhabitants, would 
be a source of pure and exalted en- 
joyment, and might arouse in some 
stoical heart that Albanian pride, so 
justly the property of or.r citizens, 
but wdiich we have only slightly cul- 
tivated. 

American history, unlike European 
and Asiatic, contains the records of 



8 
only two liiindred and fifty years. It 
bears not upon its pages the mystic 
annals of China and of Egypt, of 
Greece and of Rome. We can date 
our origin — the settlement of every 
city, village, and hamlet — and often- 
times the memory of the "oldest 
inhabitant" of some great and crowded 
emporium contains the complete record 
of its foundation, growth and maturity. 
We can claim for Albany an older date 
than that of our great commercial 
metropolis, and that, next to James- 
town in Virginia, it is the oldest city 
in the United States. 

After the discovery of America by 
Columbus, European enterprise was 



9 

directed to this continent, as the 
California of those days ; and the mys- 
tery and uncertainty of its true wealtli, 
extent, and fertility, added greatly to 
the excitement consequent on its dis- 
covery. 

In the early part of the seventeenth 
century, the Dutch established trading 
houses near the present cities of New- 
York and Albany. In September, 
1609, the immortal Hendrik Hudson, 
in the ship Half Moon, made his 
memorable voyage up our noble rivei* 
which bears his name : a part of the 
crew of this vessel were the first white 
men that ever saw the site of our 
present goodly city. Its hills were 



10 

tlien covered with the pine, the maple, 
the oak, and the elm ; while through 
the valleys flowed the Eutten Idl and 
Yossen kil, and on the outskirts ran the 
noisy waters of the Beaver kil and 
the Patroon's creek. The wild vine 
clambered in rich luxuriance on the 
forest trees, and threw its graceful 
festoons from the mossy banks of the 
river. The slender deer bounded 
undisturbed through the tangled 
thickets, or bent his antlered head to 
drink from the limpid streams that 
crossed his path. The beaver sported 
unmolested in the bright watei'S, 
which are now doomed to the dark- 
ness and gloom of a subterranean 



11 

passage to the river; and slept in 
conscious security on the low grounds 
of the southern and eastern portions 
of the cit}^ where now the elegant 
stores and stately residences of our 
citizens have obliterated all traces of 
his patient industry. Where now 
the hum of busy thousands attests 
the mart of commerce, industry and 
enterprise — silence reigned supreme. 
Could the immortal Hendrik have 
slept the fabled sleep which the 
genius of Irving has interwoven with 
the banks of the Hudson, and beheld, 
on his awaking at the present day, 
our venerated city as it now stands, 
his bewildered memory could have 



12 

scarcely recalled tlie fact of its primi- 
tive solitude. 

I have many times thought that the 
Q:reatest blessiuo: Deitv could vouch- 
safe to mortals, would be the privilege 
of revisiting, in after centuries, the 
scenes of our lifetime labors and dis- 
coveries ; but ever as 1 ponder on that 
ecstatic bliss, the thought recurs, that 
were it permitted us, Americans, to 
behold the sites of our dwellings, 
farms, villages, and cities, before the 
white man's foot had touched these 
shores, that such a scene would be 
equally enchanting. It would be 
interesting to know what chief raised 
his rude wigwam on the Hill where 



13 

stands the Capitol, second only in 
importance to that which rears its 
head at Washington. We would 
know^ his life, his oratory, his adven- 
tures, his battles, and his death ; 
whether also on that Hill, at any time, 
Indian sachems confered in council, 
or Indian warriors sounded their 
terrific war-whoop, and fought and died 
in battle. We would also know of the 
gentler partner of his wild-wood home ; 
of the mingled romance and reality 
of her life and her religion, and her 
patient endurance of hardships and 
fatigues, which would blanch the 
cheek and chill the blood of our 

modern fair. We would know if their 

3 



14 

soothsayers ever predicted anything 
of the utter destruction that has 
fallen upon their race, and the power, 
and strength, and skill of the white 
men who have supplanted them. We 
would know how those Romans of 
the New World, the fearless Iroquois, 
held the whole northern country in 
subjection to their despotic sway; 
whether it was bravery, or wisdom, or 
oratory, or all of these combined, 
which gave them their acknowledged 
supremacy and terrible power. The 
unwritten pages of Indian history 
would form volumes of thrilling 
interest to the world ; but there are 
no landmarks in the darkness of 



15 

their past, and tlie simple aborigines 
lived and died, but gave no sign, 
save now and then, when an earnest 
antiquarian enters upon the broad 
field of conjecture, and strives to 
rescue from oblivion the rude hiero- 
glyphics that lie buried in the red 
man's grave. 

We leave this speculative ground, 
for the real and authentic history 
of Albany. 

Hendrik Hudson had been dis- 
patched from Holland in the vessel 
Half Moon, by the Dutch East India 
Company, to search for a northwest 
passage to India and China, which 
at this time was attracting the 



16 

attention of the scientific men of 
Europe. In coasting along the Ame- 
rican shore, he entered the bay of 
the Manhattes, or New- York ; and, 
attracted by the beauty of the banks 

of the Cohotatea, as the river was 
called by the natives, and in the 
hope of finding the long sought for 
passage, he ascended to the head 
of navigation for vessels of the tonnage 
of the Half Moon, near the present 
city of Hudson, and despatched 
Robert Juet, the mate, and four 
sailors, up the stream as far as 
Albany. Not finding any passage 
to China, probably for the reason 
that he did not go up as far as our 



17 

neighboring city, and seek a route 
''via Troy,^' he returned to Europe. 
The Half Moon, after some detention 
in England, sailed for Holland, with 
the interesting tidings of Hudson's 
discoveries. He, however, was pre- 
vented from leaving, by the English 
authorities, who began to grow 
jealous of the maritime enterprises 
of the Dutch. Of his history little 
is known. He was an Englishman 
by birth. Soon after this voyage, he 
made another in the service of the 
London Compan}^, to the northern 
part of this continent, where success 
again rewarded him by the discovery 
of the large bay, which is called by 



18 

his name. On his return voyage, 
a mutiny broke out among the ship's 
crew ; and he, with several of his 
sailors, was placed in a small boat 
and set adrift upon the waste of 
waters. It is probable that he died 
of starvation; or, perhaps, to avert 
the terrors of such an agonizing 
death, voluntarily sought his grave, 
and sleeps beneath the waters of 
that ocean which once bore him 
proudly on to the scene of his future 
fame and immortality. 

The announcement of Hudson's 
discoveries aroused the enterprise of 
the merchants of the United Provinces 
of the Netherlands ; and several 



19 

ships were despatched to the island 
of Manhattan, to trade with the 
Indians. An ordinance, ur octroy, 
was passed on the twenty-seventh 
dav of March, 1614, bv the States 
General, giving to the first discoverers 
" of any new courses, havens, countries, 
or places," being inhabitants of the 
United Netherlands, the exclusive 
right and privilege of making the 
first four voyages to such places so 
discovered. The Netherlands were 
at this time the first maritime jDowev 
of Europe, and Amsterdam was the 
commercial capital of the world; her 
citizens had amassed their wealth upon 
the seas, and her merchant pi'inces 



20 

claimed an equality with the aristo- 
cracy and nobility of Europe. The 
independence of the provinces had 
been virtually wrenched from the 
haughty Philip of Spain ; and Prince 
Maurice — the Washington of the 
Dutch — was acknowledged one of 
the greatest generals of the age. 
Dui'ing the war against the combined 
forces of England and France, London 
itself, while ridiculing the Dutch 
admirals, trembled for its very 
existence. With their government 
was also mixed the leaven of repub- 
licanism — always a source of activity 
and enterprise, and adding incalcu- 
lably to the effective power of a nation. 



21 

The republic had been ushered into 
existence by its hatred of Spanish 
oppression and the Spanish Inquisition. 
It felt all the energies of a youthful 
nation that had bought its religious 
and political independence by its 
own inherent bravery and valor. 

We may perhaps be amused at the 
ridicule some writers have seen fit to 
bestow upon the eccentricities of our 
Dutch ancestry ; but the genius of 
such persons might have been more 
worthily employed in caricaturing 
vice and immorality, and ministering 
to our lower faculties onlv to eflfect 
some exalted and elevated purpose. 
Surely no one in whose veins runs 



22 

the blood of the Puritans, can forget 
the land and the race that aiforded 
them shelter and protection from 
British intolerance and persecution. 
We would do well to remember that 
in politics, jurisprudence, medicine, 
theology, the arts, and in land and 
naval warfare, Holland can boast of . 
such names as DeWitt, Barneveldt, 
Grotius, Boerhaave, Erasmus, Kem- 

BRANDT, EUBENS, YaN DyKE, PrINCE 

Maurice, De Ruyter, and Van Tromp ; 
a constellation of genius unequalled 
at this period in any other nation of 
the world. Immediately after the 
passage of the octroy of March 1614, 
several Amsterdam and Hoorn mer- 



23 
chants despatched five ships on 
voyages of exploration and discovery ; 
three of which were commanded by 
the eminent navigators Adriaen Block, 
Hendrik Corstiaensen and Cornelius 
Jacobsen Mey. They explored the 
American coast from Massachusetts 
Bay to Virginia, and gave names to 
the bays, islands, rivers, &c. ; and 
Skipper Hendricksen, upon whom 
the command of one of the ships 
devolved, on his return to Holland 
in 1616, presented to the States 
General a figurative map of his dis- 
coveries, which is the oldest chart 
of these countries known to exist. 
The original was found by Mr. Brod- 



24 

head at the Hague in 1841, and a 
copy is published in O'Gallaghan's 
History of New Netherlands 

On the eleventh day of October 

1614, the States General granted to 
Gerrit Jacob Witsen and others, the 
enterprising merchants of Amsterdam 
and Hoorn above mentioned, a charter, 
under the octroy of March, confering 
on them the exclusive privilege of 
trading to New Netherland, or the 
countries between New France and 
Virginia, for four voyages to be made 
within three years commencing on 
or before the first day of January 

1615. The company now assumed 
the name of the United New Nether- 



25 

land Company ; and in 1614, Ilendrik 
Corstiaensen erected under the above 
grant a trading house on the island 
below the site of our city, and nearly 
opposite the princely residence of our 
respected townsman, E. P. Prentice, 
Esq., at Mount Hope. The trading 
house was 26 feet wide and 36 feet 
long, surrounded by a stockade 50 
feet square, and a moat 18 feet wide : 
two pieces of cannon and eleven stone 
guns were mounted for its defence, 
and it was garrisoned by ten or 
twelve men under the command of 
Corstiaensen and Jacob Jacobz Elkens. 
Here an extensive fur trade was 
opened and carried on with the 



26 

Indians. The river was then generally 
called Mauritius, or Prince Maurice's 
River, and was named after Maurice 
of Nassau, Prince of Orange, who, 
at the age of eighteen, on the murder 
- of his father, succeeded to the govern- 
ment of the Low Countries, and became 
captain general of the united states. 
He strengthened and confirmed the 
newly established republic, by his 
wisdom and bravery, and enlarged its 
provinces and its fame by numerous 
conquests and splendid victories. The 
river was also called the Great North 
River of the New Netherlands by 
the Dutch settlers, in contradistinction 
from the South or Delaware River. 



27 
This name, to some extent, it still 
retains. Hudson called it the Great 
River of the Mountains. In the journal 
of a French Jesuit (Father Jogues), 
written in 1646, it is called the Oiouge; 
but the natives at its mouth knew 
it as the Mohegan, but generally by 
the name of Manhattes, though among 
the Mohicans it received the title of 
Shatemuck. The Mohawks, however, 
graced it with the more euphonious 
and poetical name of Cohohatatea. 

The fort on Castle Island is designat- 
ed on the map of Skipper Hendriksen 
as Fort Nassau, but was also known 
by the name of the Kasteel or Castle, 
It was never generally recognized as 



28 

Fort Nassau; another fort, bearing 
that name, having been erected 
shortly after on the South or Delaware 
Kiver. 

In the spring of 1617, by the 
breaking up of the ice on the river, 
there was a heavy freshet; but at 
that time, the dock and the pier were 
not in a condition to receive much 
injury, though the small fort and 
trading house on the island were 
nearly destroyed. The company there- 
fore erected a new fort on the hill, 
called by the Indians Tawasgunshee, 
near the banks of the Norman's kil, 
or Tawalsantha creek. The Norman^s 
kil was named after Albert Adriaensen 



29 

Bradt de Norman, or Northman, one 
of the early settlers at Rensselaers- 
wyck. The Rutten Ml was named from 
Kutgers Bleecker, a proprietor of land 
adjoining it. He was probably the 
ancestor of the worthy Dutch family of 
that name, whose history is identified 
with that of Albany from its earliest 
existence. The five streams, from the 
Norman's kil to Patroon's creek, were, 
however, at this period, designated as 
the first, second, third, fourth, and 
fifth kils. 

The exclusive privileges of the New 
Netherland Company having expired, 
according to the terms of the grant in 
January 1618, the country was open 



5 



30 

to individual enterprise; but the 
original company, by their old and 
well-founded establishments, and 
knowledge of the trade, still retained 
control of the greater portion of the 
traffic until 1621. The same year, the 
Dutch made a solemn alliance and 
treaty of peace with the Five Nations, 
near the mouth of the Norman's kil, 
and it was confirmed with great form- 
ality and ceremony. To the honor of 
the parties, be it said, it was never 
broken, so long as the Dutch retained 
their power in this state. 

On the third day of June 1621, the 
States General organized the West 
India Company, and granted it a 



31 

cliarter similar to the one granted to 
the East India Company ; partly for 
commercial and in part for warlike 
purposes, as the twelve years' truce 
with Spain had expired. To this 
company w^as given the exclusive 
privilege of trading and navigating 
to the coasts of Africa, North and 
South America, and the West Indies, 
for a period of twenty-four years 
(which was subsequently extended) ; 
and they were empowered to found 
colonies, erect fortifications, make 
treaties, and possessed legislative, 
executive and judicial powders over 
their colonies. The control of the 
company was vested in five chambers 



32 

of managers, styled lords directors, at 
Amsterdam, Zealand, Maese, North 
Holland and Friesland; and the ge- 
neral meeting of the chambers was 
composed of nineteen delegates or 
directors, in whom was lodged the 
supreme power of the company, having 
authority even to declare war, subject 
to the approbation of their high might- 
inesses the States General. The 
government also gave them nearly 
half a million of dollars, and subscribed 
another half million to the stock of 
the company; and in case of war, 
were to assist them with a large naval 
force. The management of New 
Netherland was committed to the 



33 

Amsterdam Chamber, which was the 
richest and most influential, appoint- 
ing nine delegates to the Assembly 
of XIX. 

In 1623, the West India Company 
erected a fort on the site of the old 
Fort Orange (now Phoenix) Hotel, in 
front of the present steamboat landing, 
and called it Fort Orange, in honor 
of Maurice, Prince of Orange. In 
March of this year, the company sent 
out a vessel of 260 tons, under the 
command of Captain Mey, with thirty 
families, principally Walloons. The 
Walloons were of French descent, and 
resided on the frontiers of Belgium and 
France : they professed the reformed 



34: 

leligion, and were distinguished for 
their bravery and valor. Some of 
their number settled at Fort Orange, 
for the purpose of colonizing the 
country and commencing farming 
operations. The fort was then com- 
manded by Daniel Yan Krieckkebeeck, 
or Beeck. Little was done, however, 
towards the cultivation of the soil, 
the settlers engaging principally in 
traffic with the Indians. In 1626, 
there were but eight families resident 
here. 

It was during this year that the 
Mahikans made war on the Maquaes, 
and asked the assistance of Com- 
mander Beeck, and six of his men. He 



35 

accordingly went, with the required 
number, and met the enemy about a 
mile from the fort. Commander 
Beeck, with three of his men, were 
slain, one of whom was roasted and 
eaten by the Indians; whereupon all 
the families were ordered to leave 
Fort Orange, and sixteen men re- 
mained as a garrison. Soon after this 
occurrence, Pieter Barentsen, an Indian 
trader, arrived at the fort; and Di- 
rector Minuit, who was the first di- 
rector of the company at Manhattan, 
ordered him to remain as commander. 
Two years after, the war between 
the Mahikans and the Maquaes was 
renewed ; the former were vanquished. 



36 

and the remnant of their tribe, not 
captured, removed to the Connecticut 
or Fresh river. 

Barentsen, having returned to 
Holland, the command of the fort 
devolved upon Sebastian Jansen Krol. 
At this time, there were about twenty- 
five ti'aders here. 

On the ninth day of September 
1629, Admiral Pieter Pietersen Heyn 
achieved his brilliant victory in favor 
of the West India Company, against 
the Spanish Plate, or, as it is more 
commonly known. Silver Fleet, of 
twenty sail; capturing the whole 
number, including a large quantity of 
gold and silver, and other spoil to the 



37 
amount of five millions dollars. The 
impetus given to the affairs of the 
company by this unprecedented success, 
swelled their dividends to fifty per 
cent, and hastened the adoption of a 
system to colonize New Netherland 
on a more extensive scale than had 
hitherto been attempted. On the 
seventeenth day of June 1629, the 
Assembly of XIX, attended by com- 
missioners of the States General, 
passed the Charter of Privileges and 
Exemptions. This document has ever 
since had an important bearing on the 
history of New York, and is the pri- 
mary and fruitful source of all the anti- 
rent disturbances that have recently 

6 



38 

agitated this state. It was strangely 
enough called a charter of privileges^ 
when, by it, the system of patroonship 
and feudalism was transplanted to our 
American shores. 

The feudal system, either in its 
original form of military tenure, or 
with various modifications, prevailed 
at this period all over Europe. Never 
was a system devised, so well calculat- 
ed for the prosperity of the nobility 
and aristocracy, and the oppression, 
dependency and degradation of all 
other classes. By its adoption in 
New Netherland, the Dutch probably 
lost the territory, which, under a 
different system, they might have re- 



39 
tained. Had the hoors of tlie patroons 
been free men, it would have encou- 
raged a more numerous immigration, 
and thev would have felt a stronger 
interest in the government of their 
Fatherland, and never surrendered 
without resistance to the jurisdiction 
of a foreign power. 

By this charter, all persons, being 
members of the West India Company, 
who planted a colonic of fifty souls 
above the age of fifteen years, were 
to be acknowledged patroons of New 
Netherland. They were allowed to 
extend their boundaries sixteen miles 
on the shore of a navigable river, or 
eight miles on both sides; but the 



40 

extent into the interior was unlimited. 
The consent of the patroon, in writing, 
was necessary, in order that a colonist 
might leave a colonic ; and after his 
term of service was fulfilled, he was 
compelled to return to Holland. The 
patroons were to have a monopoly of 
fishing, hunting, and grinding of all 
mines and minerals, and a preemption 
right of buying the colonists' surplus 
grain and cattle. The patroons 
possessed the absolute title to the 
soil ; and their courts had jurisdiction 
of actions, subject to appeal, in cases 
of upwards of fifty guilders, to the 
company's commander and council in 
Few Netherland. The patroons' 



41 

courts had also jurisdiction in crimi- 
nal cases, even to punishment by- 
death ; and in the colonic of Kensse- 
laerswyck, an agreement was required 
by the patroon of every settler, not to 
appeal from the sentence of his courts. 
Private persons, however, were allowed 
to settle and possess the lands they 
could properly improve, subject to 
the approbation of the director and 
council. 

On the eighteenth day of April 1630, 
Bastiaen Jansen Krol and Dirk 
Cornelissen Duyster, commissary and 
under-commissary at Fort Orange, 
purchased of the Indians a large 
tract of land lying below the fort, and 



42 

between Beeren and Smackx islands, 
for Killian Van Rensselaer, a pearl 
merchant of Amsterdaio, and one of 
the home directors of the company. 
In July of the same year, and also in 
April 1637, other purchases were 
made bv him ; so that the whole of 
his princely domain was forty-eight 
miles broad, and extended twenty-four 
miles on both sides of the river, reach- 
ing from Beeren island to Cahoos. In 
October 1630, Van Rensselaer associ- 
ated with himself Samuel Godyn, 
Johannes de Laet, Touissaint Moussart, 
Samuel Bloemart, and Adam Bissels. 
Yan Rensselaer w^as to remain sole 
patroon, and the recipient of feudal 



43 

rights and honors ; but the association 
was divided into five shares, of which 
he held two, De Laet one, Godyn one, 
and the fifth share was divided among 
the remaining three. All the shares 
were, however, finally purchased, or 
extinguished, by Yan Kensselaer, in 
1685. 

Jacob Albertsen Planck was the 
first schout-fiscaal of Rensselaerswyck. 
This office was the most influential 
one in the colonic ; comprising in its 
character that of sherifl*, district 
attorney and attorney general, beside 
other duties peculiar to the system 
of patroonship. Arendt Yan Curlear 
was appointed secretary, and superin- 



44 

tendent of the colonie. He obtained 
such an influence over the Indians by 
his kindness, benevolence and integ- 
rity, that they ever after addressed 
the governors of New York by the 
name of Corlear; a tribute to his 
memory, from the untutored savages, 
more glorious than monumental 
marble, or the praises of song. 

About the first of June 1630, a 
number of colonists, with their stock, 
farming implements, &c., arrived at 
Rensselaerswyck. Other settlers fol- 
lowed ; so that the conditions of the 
charter of 1629, as to the number of 
colonists, wel'e fulfilled within the 
required period. The expenses of the 






45 

first settlers were principally borne by 
the proprietors of the colonic. 

The patroon claimed a monopoly 
of the fur trade ; allowing the colonists, 
however, to engage in the traffic, by 
dividing the profits. 

In 1633, an English ship, The 
William, visited Fort Orange to trade 
with the Indians, and landed its 
cargo about a mile below the fort. 
Director Yan Twiller sent up three 
vessels from Fort Amsterdam ; and, with 
the assistance of the soldiers from the 
fort, they succeeded in taking it, and 
after convoying it down the Hudson, 
they ordered the Englishman to leave 

the country. 

7 



46 

Eight small houses, and a large 
one "with balustrades," were erected 
this year at Fort Orange. A brewery 
was also built about this time. 

In 1634, the village began to assume 
a name independent of the fort, and 
was called Beverwych, or Bever's 
fuyk, or the Fuyk, so named from the 
crescent form of the bay at this 
place.* The inhabitants seemed not 
to have turned their attention, in any 
great degree, toward agricultural 



* Mrs. Grant, in her Memoirs of an American Lad^, 
says that Albany was called by the Dutch, at a subse- 
quent period, Orienhurgli. Among the French of 
Canada, it was also known by the name of Orange. 
Washington Irving, in his History of New Yorh^ calls 
it Fort Aurania. 



47 

pursuits: a few patches of maize 
or Indian corn, only, were cultivated 
about the fort. Four years after, 
there were only some half dozen farms 
or houioeries under tillage; the inha- 
bitants generally being traders with 
the Indians, or officers and soldiers at 

the fort. 

During the year 1638, Bastion 
Jansen Krol was commissary, and 
Adrien Dirksen assistant ; Dirk Stipel 
being the wachtmeister, or commander 
of the fort. The claim of the patroon 
to the fur trade with the natives, led 
to a long controversy with the director 
of the company at Manhattan; but 
during this year it was settled, and 



48 

a new impulse was given to the settle- 
ment of the country by a proclamation 
from the Amsterdam Chamber, opening 
the trade to all the inhabitants of the 
states, their allies and friends ; and 
the director and court at Fort Amster- 
dam were instructed to convey to 
every person all the lands he could 
properly cultivate, subject to a 
payment to the company, after four 
years, of a tenth of the produce of the 
same. 

The controversies which had arisen 
between the patroons and directors 
of the West India Company, as well 
as the amount of land acquired under 
the system of patroonship, caused 



49 

the directors to repurchase all the 
colonies that could be bought, and 
led to an alteration of the Charter of 
Privileges and Exemptions. 

In the year 1640, the charter was 
essentially modified : the right to 
become patroons was not limited to 
members of the company, but was 
extended to all citizens of New 
Netherland. The extent of future 
colonies was limited to three miles 
along the bank of a river, and six 
miles into the interior ; and no colonic 
was allowed to be located on a river 
opposite a colonic. The patroons were 
obliged to send over the fifty colonists 
in three years, instead of four ; one- 



50 

third annually. Any person who 
should send over five colonists above 
fifteen years of age, was constituted a 
master, and allowed the privilege of 
hunting and fishing in the public 
streams. The privileges as to trade 
and commerce, granted to the patroons 
by the charter of 1629, were extended 
to all free colonists and inhabitants of 
New Netherland, subject to an import 
tax of 5 and an export duty of 10 per 
cent, and the prohibition of manufac- 
tures in the colonies was also abolished. 
This charter was again somewhat 
modified in 1 650. 

In the same year (1640), the patroon 
appointed Adrien Yander Donck, a 



51 

graduate from the University of 
Leyden, schout Jiskaal for Rensselaers- 
wyek. He remained eight years in 
this country ; and, on his return to 
Holland, published a description of 
the New Netherlands, a copy of which 
can be found in the Collections of the 
New York Historical Society. 

Two years after the appointment of 
Van der Donck, the patroon sent to 
the colony of Eensselaerswyck the Rev. 
Johannes Megapolensis, "the pious 
and well learned minister of the con- 
gregation of Schoorel and Berge." He 
was the first clergyman ever located 
here. The next year a church was 
erected for his accommodation, back 



52 

of the fort, near what is still called 
Church street. It was 19 feet wide, 
and 34 feet long, rudely constructed, 
and contained nine benches for the 
congregation. This building was 
occupied until 1656, when a new one 
was erected in the centre of the street, 
at the intersection of what is now 
Broadway and State streets. This 
place of worship, after being rebuilt 
in 1715, was used until 1806, when 
it was torn down, and the land 
purchased by the city. The stone 
step formerly at the vestibule of the 
church, has, by mistake, been recently 
removed from its old location ; but 
ere long, we trust it will be returned, 




DUTCH CHURCH, 1715. 



55 

and that the liberality of our city 
will protect this sacred relic of its 
earlier days by an appropriate railing 
and inscription, that it may not be 
daily profaned by the track of the 
passing vehicle, and the tread of the 
busy multitude. 

In 1642, a ferry was established 
between Beaverwyck and Tuscameatic, 
as Greenbush was then called by the 
Indians. Its present appellation is 
derived from the Dutch, het groen hosch, 
or the pine woods. This ferry has 
now been in operation, in the same 
place, for 208 years, and is therefore 
the oldest ferry in the United States. 

The year following, Van Kensselaer 



56 

erected a fort and trading house on 
Beeren Island, which is south of Coey- 
mans Landing. It was built for the 
purpose of protecting the colonic, and 
to exclude from the river private 
traders, who had encroached on the 
fur trade to a ruinous extent. It was 
called by the high sounding name of 
Rensselaer steen, or Rensselaer's castle ; 
and Nicholas Coorn was appointed 
wachtmeester. The raising of this fort, 
and the exaction of staple-right or 
toll on all vessels excepting those 
belonging to the West India Company, 
and the lordly pretensions of Kiliaen 
Yan Rensselaer, caused a sharp and 
bitter controversy between the direc- 



57 
tors at Fort Amsterdam, and the 
patroon. 

The winter of 1647 was one of the 
coldest ever known. The river was 
frozen as early as the twenty-fifth of 
November, and remained thus four 
months : in the spring, a destructive 
freshet succeeded, which materially 
injured the fort, and otherwise da- 
maged Beaverwyck. It was during 
this spring that two whales, inspired 
probably with the spirit of discovery, 
came up the river as far as this place, 
filling the inhabitants with extreme 
terror. One of these sea-monsters 
penetrated as far as the Mohawk 
Kiver, where it stranded on an island, 



58 

and was soon despatched by the inha- 
bitants, who roasted it, and obtained 
large quantities of oil. The river 
presented a singular appearance for 
nearly a fortnight, in consequence of 
the oil which floated down the stream.* 
Kiliaen Yan Kensselaer died in 
1646, and Johannes Yan Kensselaer 
succeeded him as patroon of Kens- 
selaerswyck. At the time of his 
father's death he was a minor, and 
his uncle Johannes Yan Wely and 
Wouter Yan Twiller were made execu- 



* This may be considered a ratlier large fish-story for 
the veracity of Sturgeondom; but the facts are well 
attested by Van der Donck, and other reliable records 
of that period. 



59 

tors and guardians of his estate. 
Brandt Arent von Slechtenliorst was 
appointed director of the colonie. In 
1648, Peter Stuyvesant became the 
director of New Netherland ; and in 
accordance with home instructions, 
he undertook to circumscribe the limits 
and weaken the power of the patroon 
of Eensselaerswyck. Stuyvesant in- 
sisted that Eensselaerswyck was within 
the jurisdiction of New Amsterdam. 
Slechtenhorst denied this, and insisted 
on all the claims of feudalism, over 
the patroonship granted by the charter 
of 1629, and by the civil or Eoman 
law, and also by the usages and 
customs of the Fatherland. Both 



60 

were high-tempered, irritable, and 
headstrong men. Stuyvesant sent 
several proclamations to Fort Orange, 
which were met by the patroon's 
director with counter proclamations. 
Stuyvesant claimed a tax and excise 
duty from the colonists at Kensselaers- 
wyck; and also that the inhabitants 
of Beaverwyck were privileged to trade 
in furs, and cut timber and firewood 
on the unoccupied lands of the colonic. 
He asserted that the patroon could 
hold only eight miles on both sides of 
the river, and that he was compelled 
to locate this part, and surrender the 
residue of his twenty-four miles. He 
complained also that the patroon had 



61 

violated the charter of 1629, by exact- 
ing from the colonists an agreement 
not to appeal from the decisions of 
his courts. The boundaries were 
indefinite between Fort Orange and 
the Colonic, and Stuyvesant forbid all 
building by the patroon within cannon 
shot of the fort. All the houses 
erected at this time nestled closely 
under the guns of the fort, for protec- 
tion from the Indians, who had made 
war on the settlements and colonies 
at New Amsterdam, destroyed many 
villages, and materially injured the 
prosperity of the country. 

Stuyvesant visited Fort Orange 

with a military escort, to settle the 
9 



62 

difficulties; but all negotiations be- 
tween the contending parties were of 
no avail. He returned to Amsterdam, 
and sent up six soldiers to demolish 
the trading house of the patroon near 
the fort. This order, how^ever, was 
not carried into effect. 

In 1649, Yan Slechtenhorst pur- 
chased for the patroon a large tract of 
land near Kats kil, and leased it to 
his tenants. This caused another 
protest from Stuyvesant. In Holland, 
Yan Twiller was claiming for the 
patroon the exclusive right of navigat- 
ing the Hudson, and even the land 
on which Fort Orange stood ; asserting 
that the colonic of Kensselaerswyck 



63 

extended from Beeren Island to the 
Cahoos, and included Beaverwyck as 
well as Fort Orange. 

While matters were in this state, 
the Amsterdam Chamber sent over an 
order to the director to demolish, by 
force of arms, if necessary, the patroon's 
fort on Beeren Island. Difficulties 
still multiplied. Stuyvesant demand- 
ed the excise on beer manufactured 
at Kensselaerswyck, and levied a 
subsidy on the Colonic. Both of these 
demands were resisted by Slechten- 
horst, and he visited New Amsterdam 
to protest against such proceedings, 
when he was imprisoned for four 
months by the director, but, at the 



64 

end of this time, managed to make 
his escape to Fort Orange. The 
patroon's house at this place was 
assaulted soon after by the soldiers, 
and personal violence offered to Slech- 
tenhorst's son. 

In Febuary 1652, Stuyvesant sent 
up proclamations, defining the limits 
of Fort Orange and Beaverwyck ; and 
directed Johannes Dyckman, the com- 
pany's commissary, to publish the 
same. He took the placards, and 
came to the court, where the magis- 
trates of the Colonic were in session, 
and attempted to stop the proceedings, 
for the purpose of proclaiming them ; 
when Van Slechtenhorst snatched 



65 

them from bis hands, and tore off the 
seals. Another placard was sent up 
soon after, and the bounds of Beaver- 
wyck were staked out ; but the con- 
stable of the Colonic tore them down, 
and a remonstrance was prepared and 
sent to New Amsterdam. 

A few months after this, Stuyvesant 
again visited Rensselaer swyck, and, 
on his arrival, sent a party of soldiers 
to the patroon's house, with orders to 
Yan Slechtenhorst to strike the 
patroon's flag ; which he indignantly 
refused to do. The soldiers thereupon 
entered the house, and lowering the 
proud colors of the feudal lord, they 
conveyed Yan Slechtenhorst a civil 



66 

prisoner to New Amsterdam. Thus 
was the land on which our city stands, 
rescued from the feudal tenure of 
patroonship, by the quarrels of the 
Amsterdam Chamber of the West 
India Company with the patroon. 

On the tenth of April 1652, Stuy- 
vesant issued a proclamation, consti- 
tuting a court at Beaverwyck, inde- 
pendent of Eensselaerswyck. This 
was the first court established at 
Albany. 

The whole controversy was finally 
brought before the States General for 
adjudication ; and in 1673, after New 
Netherland had been taken by the 
English, and retaken for a short period 



67 

by the Dutch, Beaverwyck, or Willem- 
stadt as it was then called, was 
ordered to be restored to the patroon. 
The same order was made by the Duke 
of York's law council in England, 
and Sir Edmond Andros was instructed 
to deliver up the village to the patroon; 
and the patroon was authorized to 
levy a tax of two beavers on each 
dwelling house for thirty years, and 
afterwards to such an amount as the 
inhabitants should agree for with the 
patroon. Andros, however, never 
fulfilled this order. Governor Dongan 
also refused to fulfil this decision ; 
judging "it is not for his Ma'ty's in- 
terest that the second town of the go- 



68 

vernment, which brings his Ma'ty so 
great a revenue, should be in the 
hands of any particular man :" but in 
1686, when the city of Albany was 
incorporated, he obtained a release 

from the patroon of his pretended 
rights. 

The first of the patroon' s family that 
ever visited this country, was Jean 
Bai^tiste Van Kensselaer, w^ho suc- 
ceeded Yan Slechtenhorst as director 
of Rensselaerswyck. In June 1655, 
Commissary Dykman having become 
insane, the office of vice-director at 
Beaverwyck was given to Johannes 
de Decker. In the fall of the year, 
Father le Moyne, a French Jesuit, 



69 

visited Fort Orange ; and soon after, 
a party of 100 Mohawk warriors 
stopped here, on their way to Canada 
to fight with the French, and solicited 
the Dutch to remain neutral in the 
contest. This the magistrates agreed 
to do. Johannes la Montaigne suc- 
ceeded de Decker as vice-director of 
Beaverwyck. 

The court house at this time was 
within the fort, and in the second 
story of a house built of boards, with 
the roof shaped liked a pavilion. No 
massive marble steps, worn and 
indented by the tread of busy feet, 
made the ascent to the temple of the 

blind goddess easy and delightful, to 
10 



70 

the few citizens who sought for a 
redress of grievances at her hands. 
A rude ladder was the only means 
of access afforded to her votaries. 
But within, I doubt not, the Dutch 
schepens, held the scales of Justice 
with all the dignity, impartiality and 
firmness of a modern Kent, Story, or 
Marshall. No new code of practice 
and pleadings embarrassed the client 
practitioner of those days. The legal 
profession was not yet established 
here ; Vander Donck, the first lawyer, 
having been prohibited from prac- 
tising, except to "give advice," 
on the ground that there was no 
other lawyer in the colonic to oppose 



71 

him, as an advocate in the trial of 
causes. 

In 1656, a part of New Netherland 
was purchased of the Amsterdam 
chamber, by the city of Amsterdam, 
for 700,000 gilders ; but this purchase 
did not affect any part of Beaverwyck. 
In 1659, delegates were sent from 
Fort Orange and Kensselaerswyck to 
cement the peace with the Five 
Nations. Jeremias Van Rensselaer, 
and Arendt Yan Curler with others, 
were delegated for that purpose. The 
pipe of peace that was once smoked, 
on the banks of the Normans kil, was 
relighted in the first castle of the 
Mohawks at Kaghnawage^ and the 



72 

chain of friendship, unbroken for six- 
teen years, was brightened anew by 
fresh pledges of amity, alliance and 
good will. 

Beaverwyck was the principal 
centre of the fur trade in North 
America, and this traffic was the chief 
occupation of the inhabitants ; almost 
every person being a trader. In 1G60, 
the practice of sending runners into 
the country to intercept the Indians, 
before arriving at the fort, or colonic, 
prevailed to such a ruinous extent, 
that Director Stuyvesant visited the 
village to correct the evil. Trade was 
injured, the Indians cheated, and 
sometimes robbed, and they had made 



73 

it a matter of complaint to the author- 
ities. Parties ran high on this 
question in Beaverwyck, and they 
were styled Runners and Anti-Runners. 
These parties seem to have survived 
to Albany ever since that time, and 
maintained a like contest in various 
departments of business, not always 
in favor of our good reputation abroad. 
The chiefs of the Senecas met Stuyve- 
sant at Fort Orange ; the inhabitants 
of the Colonic and Beaverwyck attend- 
ed, the difficulties were discussed, and 
the negotiation conducted with all the 
usual formalities of Indian diplomacy. 
The runner, or as it was termed in 
olden time, broker system, was agreed 



74 

to be discontinued ; but the repeated 
re-enactments against it, appearing 
for many years afterwards in the 
records of the common council, prove 
that it was never entirely destroyed. 
In 1663, a war broke out with the 
Esopus Indians, which was carried 
on by Director Stuyvesant for several 
campaigns, very successfully, and the 
Esopus tribe were nearly exterminated. 
The boundaries between New 
Netherland and New England, had 
been, from their earliest settlement, a 
subject of exciting controversy between 
the colonists here, and the mother 
countries at home. Negotiations and 
petty contests had succeeded each 



75 

other, for almost the whole period of 
their existence. In 1614, Capt. Argal, 
from Virginia, had attacked the trad- 
ing house at Manhattan, and reduced 
it to temporary subjection. From 
1652 to 1654, the Dutch and English 
were engaged in open war at home, 
and Van Tromp had achieved many 
naval victories. On the 12th day of 
May, 1664, Charles II. granted to his 
" dearest brother James, Duke of York 
and Albany," a charter for the New 
Netherland. The original document 
now hangs in the State Library in 
this city. An English force was sent 
over by the Duke, in order to acquire 
possession of the territory granted to 



76 

liim. On the 6th day of September, 
1664, New Amsterdam and the fort 
were surrendered to the English, 
under Nichols, by Stuyvesant, with- 
out a struggle, but much against his 
own inclination. On the 10th, George 
Carteret was sent by Governor Nichols, 
to take Fort Orange, which also 
surrendered without resistance, on the 
24th day of September. By the terms 
of capitulation, the Dutch were to 
retain all their property and rights 
of citizenship, and become subjects of 
the Duke of York. The Duke bv his 
charter, was to have full and absolute 
power and authority, to control, correct, 
pardon and punish, govern and I'ule 



77 
his subjects, according to such laws, 
ordinances and directions, as he should 
establish. The proprietary govern- 
ment of the Duke of York, continued 
from 1664 to 1685, when the duke 
became king, and assumed the title of 
James II, though he still retained, 
even his ro5^alty, the title of "Supreme 
Lord and Proprietor of the Province of 
New York and its Dependencies." A 
code of laws was framed called the 
Duke's Laws, which prevailed until 
1691, under which the country was 
ruled by his agents, and colonial 
governors. We New Yoi'kers, have 
oftentimes been amused by the extra- 
vagant austerity of the Connecticut 
11 



78 

Blue Laws ; a few extracts from the 
Duke^s Laws, under which our state 
was governed for nearly thirty years, 
will show that their severity was not 
without a parallel. 

Stocks and pillories were to be 
erected in every town. 

It was ordained that the ministers 
should " pray for the king, queen, 
Duke of York, and the royal family." 
Another law was as follows : "If any 
persons within this government shall, 
by direct, exprest, impious, or pre- 
sumptuous ways, deny the true God 
and his attributes, he shall he put to 
death.'' ^ 

Another : " If any child, or children. 



79 

above sixteen years of age, and of 
sufficient understanding, shall smite 
their natural father or mother, unless 
thereunto provoked and forct for their 
self preservation or mayming, at the 
complaint of the said father or mother, 
they heing sufficient witnesses thereof, 
that child or those children, so offend- 
ing, shall he put to deaths 

The English, in conquering the 
country, seemed determined also to 
conquer its Dutch associations. To 
Fort Orange was given the name of 
Albany, from the Duke's Scotch title, 
and New Amsterdam was called ^N'ew 
York. By way of continuing claim 
from its first discovery by an English- 



80 

man, the Mauritius river now assumed 
the name of Hudson river. The Pa- 
troon of Kensselaerswyck retained his 
colonie, with the exception of the 
government and holding courts ; it 
was transformed into a "manor" in 
accordance with English laws and 
customs. Our city continued to re- 
ceive accessions of settlers, chiefly 
English, and a few from the other 
American colonies. 

In 1686, it had attained importance 
enough, in the eyes of the British 
government, to be incorporated as a 
city ; and Peter Schuyler and Robert 
Livingston were commissioned by the 
inhabitants to go to New York, and 



81 

procure the charter, which was pub- 
lished on their return, "with all y^ 
joy and acclaimation imaginable." 
The bounds of the city by this charter 
were stated to be, on the east, by the 
Hudson river ; on the south, by a line 
running northwest sixteen miles from 
the north end of Martin Gerretsen's 
Island, to the Sand kil ; on the north, 
by a line to be drawn from the post 
set by Governor Stuyvesant near the 
river, running northwest sixteen 
miles ; and on the west, by a straight 
line drawn from the points of the said 
north and south lines. Numerous 
privileges and immunities were allow- 
ed to Albany, as an ancient city ; and 



82 

all land not hitherto granted within 
the chartered limits was given to the 
corporation, as w^ell as the privilege 
of purchasing from the natives 500 
acres at Schaaghtecoiige and 1000 
acres at Tionondoroge. They were 
also allowed to enact laws and ordi- 
nances for the government and regula- 
tion of the Indian trade. The city 
held their Indian lands for a long 
period, and derived considerable reve- 
nue from their tenants : the rent was 
payable principally in wheat ; the 
minutes of the common council detail 
the manner in wdiich it was sold at 
auction by the city. The common 
council, however, had repeated contro- 



83 

versies with the Five Nations about 
these lands. 

The Stadt House, or City Hall, 
referred to in the charter, stood on the 
corner of what is now Hudson street 
and Broadway, on the site of the 
present Commercial Buildings Here 
also were the prison, the whipping- 
post, the stocks, and the pillory. The 
courts were held at this jDlace, and 
continued to be until a late period. 
Within the memory of some of our 
citizens, the eloquence of Emmet, 
Burr, Henry, and Hamilton, has been 
displayed at this old Court House or 
City Hall. In 1797, the first session 
of the legislature in this city was 



84 

held at this hall ; the building, how- 
ever, must have been reconstructed. 

Albany owes much of the import- 
ance, wealth and prosperity of its 
earlier days, to the traftic in furs and 
peltry with the Indians. Being the 
most important centre of the trade in 
the country, the Five Nations made it 
tlieir market, and the Canada Indians 
found it of easy access by the river 
and Lake Champlain. 

The minutes of the common council, 
for nearly a century after its incor- 
poration, are replete with regulations 
and ordinances for the government of 
this traffic. Each dwelling house was 
also a trading house, and the upper 



85 

story was set apart as the store-house 
for furs. Some of the old buildings 
yet remaining in the city, by the iron 
fixtures in front for drawing up peltry, 
the shape and location of the doors 
and windows, the gable end to the 
street, &c., give evidence of the semi- 
dwelling and semi-tradinghouse style 
of architecture, which prevailed at 
that period, and are now the most 
striking mementoes of the days gone 

by. 

Kalm, a Swedish naturalist, in his 

description of Albany in 1 749, charges 

the Albanians with dishonesty and 

deceit in their commercial intercourse 

with the Indians, and the accusation 
12 



86 

is sanctioned in a sketch of our history 
contained in as respectable a periodi- 
cal as Hunt's Merchants' Magazine. 
The injustice of this charge is suffi- 
ciently proved by the fact that Albany 
was never attacked by the Indians 
during the numerous wars which 
occurred during the Dutch and English 
dynasties, and that it also maintained 
an almost exclusive monopoly of the 
Indian trade.* 

The farming interest was chiefly 



* Mrs. Grant, whose residence in Albany began soon 
after Kalm's visit, in her really interesting Memoirs, 
records a much more truthful estimate of the character of 
our early citizens. She says : " The very idea of being 
ashamed of any thing that was neither vicious nor inde- 
cent never entered the head of an Albanian." 



87 

connected with the manor of Rensse- 
laerswyck. The Dutch burgher was a 
trader, and engaged in commercial 
pursuits. All the vessels for a long 
time plying between New York and 
Albany, were owned by Albany mer- 
chants. Zewant (seawant), or wampum, 
was used instead of money ; 6 white or 
3 black, being equal to one stuiver or 
penny. Beavers were also another 
medium of exchange, and the litigation 
of the courts was principally for the 
collection of beavers alleged to be due, 
instead of money, as at the present 
time. 

At the period we take leave of our 
city, the principal streets were Yonker 



88 

or Gentlemen's street, and Handelear 
street. The former afterwards assum- 
ed the name of King, and the latter of 
Court street. They are at present 
known as State street and Broadway. 
The part of Broadway lately known 
as North Market street was called 
subsequent to this period, Brewer's 
street ; the parsonage of the old Dutch 
church was situated on this street on 
the site of the present Bleecker Hall. 
The streets were not at that time 
paved, though a side walk 8 feet wide 
was constructed in 1676. From an 
order of the magistrates of February 
22d, of this year, prohibiting the citi- 
zens from keeping fodder in their 



91 

dwelling houses, and another of Nov. 
22d, ordering the inhabitants to keep 
the streets free from fire wood, cooper's 
timber, &c., &c., we are led to believe 
that the streets were still in a rather 
primitive condition, and that the 
worthy Dutch housewives had not yet 
established their reputation for neat- 
ness and cleanliness, or that their 
voice was not very potent in the 
regulation of these affairs. A few 
months since, in excavating Broadway 
in front of the Museum, at about one 
foot below the surface, the workmen 
threw up a stratum of old chips, oyster- 
shells, &c., 18 inches thick, which 
were undoubtedlv the remains of the 



92 

old wood piles and rubbish that, 
notwithstanding the repeated ordinan- 
ces of the common council, filled the 
streets in its early days, when the 
fuel was cut in front of the houses, as 
is common in the country. At the 
time of which we are speaking all of 
that part of the city south of Beaver 
street, and west of Broadway, was 
owned by the Dutch Church, at the 
corner of Yonker and Handelear streets, 
and was denominated and used as 
the pasture, by which name the lower 
part of the city is still sometimes 
designated. The streets in this part 
of the city, Lydius, Westerlo, &c., were 
named after ministers of the old Dutch 



93 

Church. The stockades which served 
as a defence against the Indians had 
not yet been built, but a semi-stockade 
fence or picquets were erected, and the 
city was protected by gates. 

The Vossen kil and Rutten kil, then 
flowed in open currents to the river, 
and were crossed by several wooden 
bridges. The old docks had not yet 
been constructed; merchandise was 
conveyed to the shipping in small boats. 
There were about 150 dwelling houses 
built, which were generally covered 
with tiles and "mured of bricks" in 
front, according to an ordinance of the 
magistrates, enacted in 1676. Fort 
Orange had gone to decay, and a few 



o 

O 



94 

years before, a new earth ern fort, 
defended by palisades, had been built 
on the mount, at the head of Yonker 
or State street, on the site of St. 
Peter's Church and the street in front 
of the Geological Eooms. The mount 
at this time, Avas nearly as high as 
the body of the church at the present 
time. The fort was principally built 
of pine stockades, 15 feet high, with 
four bastions, and besides small arms 
for 40 men, mounted 9 guns, and was 
garrisoned by loO men. There were 
between five and six hundred inhabit- 
ants in the city, and about one-third 
of that number in the manor of Kens- 
selaerswyck. 




OLD FORT IN 1696. 



1, Governor of Albany's house. 

2, Officers' lodgings. 

3, Soldiers' lodgings. 

4, t'lag staff mount. 
6, Magazine. 

6, Dial mount. 

7, Town mount. 



8, Well. 

9, Sentry boxes. 

11, Sally port. .,, . , 

12, Ditch fortified with stakes. 

13, Gardens 

14, Stockades. 

15, Fort gate. 



97 

Thus have we traced the principal 
events connected with Albany, from 
its foundation as a feeble fort, and 
trading house, to its incorporation as 
a city, with peculiarly liberal privile- 
ges and immunities. Unlike New 
York, it maintained at all times a 
strict peace and friendship with the 
Indians, although its intercourse with 
them was more complicated and 
extended, and its situation more ex- 
posed either to open or secret attacks. 

The treaty of alliance with the Five 
Nations, ratified in 1618, on the banks 
of the Tawalsantha, or the Normans 
kil, was sedulously preserved, unbro- 
ken and unviolated. Its controversies 



98 
with the manor of Eensselaerswyck, 
which at one time threatened to make 
it only a dependency of the patroon, 
were finally settled by the charter, 
and its undisputed jurisdiction one 
mile in width and sixteen in length, 
through the centre of the manor, esta- 
blished and confirmed. The existence 
of the city, so far as courts and a 
separate organization were concerned, 
had been merged in that of the Colonic 
until the lOth day of April, 1652, 
when by Stuyvesant's order a separate 
jurisdiction was proclaimed. 

The limits and scope of these re- 
miniscences will not permit a detail of 
the subsequent events connected with 



99 

our municipal history. During the great 
struggle for national existence, which 
occurred nearly a century afterward, 
Albany was among the foremost in the 
field, the most persevering in the fight, 
and the most impoverished by the 
contest. Gloriously and well did she 
earn the dignity and honor of becom- 
ing the favored Capital of the Empire 
State. 

For one, I am proud of being an 
Albanian ; and it is truly with harmo- 
nious emotions of pleasure and exulta- 
tion that I look back upon our Dutch 
as well as English origin. He who 
would condemn the one, or despise 
the other, is unworthy of such ances- 



i::i 



100 

try, and libels the memory of both 
races. The spirit which animated the 
Dutch against Spanish oppression, of 
which Sydney said to Queen Elizabeth, 
^'■It is the spirit of God, and is invinci- 
ble f^ the spirit which flowed in the 
veins of the Waldenses and French 
Huguenots, and coursed in the blood of 
the Puritans of New England, have 
met here and commingled ; and Alba- 
nians must be forgetful of their origin, 
and of their fathers, if they ever prove 
recreant to Eight and Justice, or Civil 
and Religious Freedom. 



l^ 5. 78 



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